Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game The art of still hunting.

Absolutely, yes.

Originally Posted By saddlesore
Here is a question that will surely raise a heated discussion.
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I don't think it will raise much of a discussion .
I guess if someone is still hunting in open terrain they would be ok carrying an empty chamber , but in any type of thick cover --no way .
I don't buy into the empty chamber safety stuff at all . When I'm hunting my gun is on safety and pointed in a safe direction when I walk away from the truck.

Absolutely. When you are still-hunting you need to be ready at any instant, whether for elk or deer. I hunt with my rifle in my hands.



Besides, when dancing with griz, I want a chance to shoot!

On the rare occasion where the deadfall is dreadful enough to warrant unloading, I am not looking for game at that juncture, and will reload on the other side of the hazardous maze.

Definitely have a round chambered. Practice muzzle control until it is instinctive, finger stays out of the trigger guard until positive target ID and fore and background confirmed clear and sights are on the target.


mike r

One of the very few times I carry a round in the chamber.

Yes.

The reason I posted this,in the past this generated a lot of negative comments.Those that do were called a lot of things. None very favorable.
I personally carry a live round in the chamber.

Now back to the OP's discussion

Most often, but not always. I've been experimenting with carrying with an empty chamber and haveing the bolt raised, safety on with one in the chamber.

Coming to the conclusion that you will be able to get away with either as long as you are very familiar with your rifle. Not always, but most of the time. You may lose some close quick encounters, but for the majority I'm sure I can pull it off.

There is definitely merit to an empty chamber when it comes to safety.

Seriously considering selling some of the extras and buying a Blaser R8 rifle, which cocks on pushing the safety to the fire position. The system is a very safe one with one in the chamber.

Addition: If any others get close to me the bolt is raised and the chamber goes empty. Same thing sitting in a blind.

I hunt largely alone so I hunt hot. Muzzle discipline and finger off the trigger at all times until it's time to shoot.

Makes no sense to me to still hunt with an empty chamber.

Guys who hunt in brown bear country with an empty chamber may find themselves working the bolt for the rest of their life.

You can do that thanks only to [bleep] republicans.

Strange. The once famous Dick Idol once said he expected the next WR to come from still hunting.

Ive never seen a whitetail buck ignore its nose. It can hear you coming and wait to see you move before running, or see you move and wait a moment to identify you before running or hide/sneaking away. Whether it is trying to mount a doe or whatever, when it smells you the jig is up and it is on you, though it may stay still and hope you pass on.

Oh, for f'k sake....

You never know what a Deer is going to do. I've come up on them and they took off hard and never looked back. Some just slowly disappeared into the thick. Some moved off a bit and stopped in the open. Some just stood and looked at me. Some you catch standing/walking around or feeding and they haven't a clue.

Moving 50 yards in a half hour for me is a recipe for not having much fun unless I know they are there. Most days are not perfect for it, so I expect to make some noise.

Trying to stare a hole thru every piece of cover is another recipe for going nuts unless standing still. Most times I pick them up out the peripheral rather than the hard focus central vision.

According to many here, I'm doing it wrong. However, any other way isn't fun, so I'll keep going on the same.

I prefer to move cross wind when still hunting. Even when sitting on deer crossings its easy to see whitetail bucks generally move with the wind at their back, unless spooked, when they prefer to move quickly and thus into the wind. Guess which direction-from whence they came, which is then against the wind.

They use their eyes to search for dangers ahead. Their nose protects their rear from coyotes or cats. Just like mule deer bed below a ridge with the wind at their backs to protect from cats, or bears, or coyotes,or dumbasses, while their eyes scan the unscented view ahead.

Still hunting success generally depends on your moving slow enough to see deer before they see you, which generally means moving slower than the deer. In open country binoculars can spot deer bedded under cedars and such. The thicker the vegetation the weaker the binocs need to be.

Its better to watch really thick bedding cover than still hunting it. Bears and cats cant normally bag a deer in such. Try it if you wish, but the odds of success are astronomically against you.

Trying to sneak within bow range of a deer is a 1/6-8 proposition. If the deer is bedded its less.

In east Texas timber, central Texas hill country, mesquite/oak mott/cactus brush country of south Texas, rocky ridges of juniper with mesquite draw/valley Pecos River canyon country and rolling plains of mesquite/cactus/juniper of west/central Texas and tall timbered/oak brush and buck brush Sacramento Mts of NM i have still hunted for deer for many years.

I have binocs but rarely use them in thick timber, preferring to be really still, unless i am in fairly open country or looking across wide draws or canyons.


In timber, and hunting only for bucks on the move or does with bucks, I travel slower than they. They move more than me.

I have come upon whitetails and mule deer while moving slow, to within 15 ft before seeing them at times as they move so slow and blend in so.
Once an open bush in front of me started shaking gently. I had been looking 40-60 yds ahead, as far as i could see in the Montana timber for a buck. Some how a doe was now pulling leaves in front of me from the opposite side of a small open sapling that i was touching the near limb tips of.
Stalking for whitetails in timber is a very difficult challenge and normally requires you to just see deer coming and drawing as their head goes behind a tree or they turn their head away.

For all practicle purposes, im not going to see a bedded shooter ahead of me in thick timber, therefore binocs are of little use and probably result in me spooking more deer by the mvt required in raising and lowering them. If i see deer moving through timber ahead i use them to see what ive got and to hopefully pick up other deer near it that are blending in and still are unseen.

For still hunting in timberland i wear wool or an old set of camo stretch fleece by Remington. I hold my arrowed bow with biscuit rest low on my left side or rifle with fingers between the scope and action with split rings on the right. I wear a felt hat with flat brim or tobaggan and a face mask and camo or brown gloves.

I move slow, turn my head slow, etc. I dont have a binoc coming up or any excess movement. I dont want a ball cap bill rotating and have had many deer and one antelope buck stand up and look at me while wearing a togue and i could see them thinking "wtf", sometimes too long.

I wear 16 inch LLBEANS normally when still hunting, though i have some leather slippers which i bought a sheep skin for and cut out and glued wool side down for using to get up on previously spotted and stalked animals.

I once got within 15 yds of a black bear with those and drilled him with an arrow.

I have no idea how most people nowdays could ever become good still hunters. Growing up walking on flat surfaces is a killer for the stealth and skill required.

One has to learn to pick the knee up while walking and only partially extend the lower leg resulting in shorter steps, such that No 1, The knee is slightly bent when the leading foot contacts the ground resulting in a cushion effect from the knee flexing rather than being stiff, locked, and straight when hitting the ground. When ones body weight is totally moving forward a stiff leading step is required to keep from landing on ones face, and there is no stealth. Of course, the stiff contact with most ground lends a great warning "thunk" with each step to the ears of most game.

No2. When walking flat surfaces efficiency, ones heel passes within 1/4 inch of a known and constant flat surface. There is no way to travel quietly with ones heel constantly hitting and rolling even small stones and twigs while travelling in this manner.

The knee has to come up enough for the foot to come forward OVER most slightly elevated obstructions in order to move forward without kicking rocks.

I finally came to realize one day while trying to sneak up on mallards on the Pecos my lawyer could not be quiet while sneaking up to the bank on the river bend above them as all he could do towards my constant, repetitious, whispers to be quite, was to go slow.


He had no concept of having to balance on the back foot and pick the leading foot a couple inches higher and over chitt or to take an extra short step before getting to a small branch and then stepping over it with the next step.

Then i remembered dealing with others before while TRYING to supposedly sneak still hunting deer in shallow valleys and the rocky ridges near Sonora Tx.
We are sneaking in on a deer and the hunters freaking boots are catching and rolling rocks as his foot moves forward. Though
we are moving slow, he has no concept of keeping weight on the back foot with the knee slightly bent and picking the leading foot higher over rocks while moving forward and rolling forward onto the leading foot with the leading knee slightly bent and flexing slightly as the heel comes down to prevent a thud as the heel hits down on gravel, twigs or hard ground.

Remember, a deer looking through the woods can see you moving and coming towards him a whole lot farther than you will be able to see him due to the way he blends in. Sneaking in on a deer feeding on acorns under an oak or laying in its hidden bed is almost impossible.

I will admit, maybe if i had learned to move even slower and had used binocs to see way ahead and through near brush the way a deer can do, i may have learned a different technique.

Good fortune on the still hunting. In timber, its the greatest hunting challenge and pure hunting thrill where no dangerous game is involved.

A point about mule deer. They do bed high on ridges over the crest from where they feed OR under the crest of ridges they will move down feeding on. Rising thermals tell them whats below when they are going to wait for the evening thermals to start moving down. When it does they get up and feed down with it. They look ahead and smell behind.

If they bed over the crest in dark timber the rising thermals tell them whats over the ridge behind them as the breeze going over the ridge forms a vacuum that rolls smells down over them. When rising thermals falter in the evening they get up and cross over the ridge while gusts are still kicking back and forth before it cools enough to consistantly go down hill. In this situation for elk or deer i try waiting off to the side or a ways down the canyon from where i want to ambush them and when the breeze stops kicking back uphill i try to haul it over to where they will be headed down.

In the morning they will be feeding up with the falling thermals in their face. Trying to waylay them with a bow is a low return proposition. Side hilling and approaching from the side is about ones only chance with a bow then.
There are times when they bed below a crest in more open country and can be sneaked down on from above or if you have a buddy and can get around and to the side and above the deer and your pal moves toward it, the deer will get up and head up and hopefully give one a shot. Be very careful to not sling an arrow toward your pal if the deer comes side hilling up toward you though.


Well, thats about my take on things. I wish i knew all the successful tricks others use. So many times, if i had just had the ability or skill to see game as well as the Indians....

God bless, jag.

What a great description of how to ooze through the terrain jaguartx. Setting your feet is really important. I like the idea of the sheepskin sole. Better than taking off boots to sneak in ragg wool sock feet. Bowhunting does make a person a better sneak hunter doesn't it? It made me pretty fanatic about quiet gear, and that is because I get close enough that little noises do make a big difference.

Though, sometimes despite your best efforts you get odd surprises. I was once closing the distance on mountain mule deer, not quite within my instinctive shooting range. I was slowly sneaking up a little drainage below an old filled in beaver dam so I could not be seen by the deer in the beaver meadow. Then I got into the marsh marigolds with only about 5 yards to go. Because of the shiny, waxy finish on those leaves, my ragg socks suddenly produced tiny squeeeak, squeeak, sounds whenever I stepped on the plants When I peered over the rim of the old dam, several deer were peering fixedly back at me. Jig was up! Wet feet to no avail. Ha! Frustrating but pretty funny all the same.

On that buck above, I spotted his antler tips approaching me through heavy brush just after I stopped to inspect a log that might be a good place to pause. I had been oozing (yes someone else above used the term "ooze" too) slowly over the landscape for about 3 hours headed to this spot. He was maybe 65 yards out. I do use binocs a lot, but it is most often the flicker of movement that my predator eyes pick up that alerts me. As I shifted position, my knee brace ticked a tiny twig that I could not feel through the wool-covered metal. Snick, a tiny sound. That buck stopped on a dime and bored holes into my position while I played tree stump. But he decided it was really nothing, and finally came clear of the brush. This was on heavily hunted public land, but there was virtually no sign anyone else was still-hunting where I was.

Like others, I plow ahead where there is no chance there is a lingering deer (or bedded elk), but when I think there may be I skulk or ooze depending on the terrain or cover. There is much to see when you are melting into the forest. And much to learn.

For sure, and a hundred more things that can go wrong with a bow than a gun.

Good luck. Any buck or bull with a bow is a trophy.

mart,

A lot of great replies in this thread. Thanks for getting it started!
For me, I've just never been the type who can sit still in a stand long enough to even bother. Especially as a kid I was always wanting to know what was over that ridge, where are the the deer right now etc.

In the early 80's I started hunting in the north woods of Vermont and Maine and it didn't take long for me to start seeing game on foot on a regular basis. After that, I was hooked on still hunting and started learning as much as I could not only about deer/bears, but the terrain and how animals use it.

During the off season I'm always looking at all sorts of maps, google earth, etc as a way of helping me pinpoint where I want to spend my time still hunting. Off season scouting helps sort that out as well.

I often use a combination of sitting and still hunting if I know I am in good deer country. Back to terrain, when I get to a saddle, for example, I might sit for a time before moving along. it all depends. I just like my chances better while on foot and that's what works for me.

CLB,

Sounds like we have similar backgrounds. I grew up in the north woods of New York on the northern edge of the Adirondacks.

I always ran a trapline on foot back then and I just loved pushing a little farther back every trip. Had to see what the next ridge held or the next bend in the stream showed me.

I'm still the same today. Always checking out another ridge or draw or the next stretch of river.

I love to still hunt but will use other methods as the situation dictates. I'm not one to spend time in a stand though. I suppose I should stand hunt but it's tough for me to take that inactivity for long.

Everywhere I've lived I have always amassed a large collection of USGS maps and pore over them regularly. It's like reading the bible. You may have read the same passage many times but suddenly something jumps out at you that you never saw before.

mart,

Interesting. Though I didn't know anyone who trapped I was interested as a young person. I had to learn to deer hunt myself, but I did it in the same country where you hung out. Northern edge of the Adirondacks. I used to hike the trailless areas of the Adirondacks and skulk around in the north woods myself. Maybe it was a place that made a person want to still-hunt. I took fledgling skills to Vermont while in school there, then better developed skills out to the western mountains. I am not patient enough and too fidgety for a long time on a stand. Tried it in TX, very difficult.

Ditto on USGS quads, but now even more so scouting with GoogleEarth. It used to be so painful to try to get the airphoto maps from USGS so you could study the cover and terrain on fuzzy maps from high elevation passes. Today's resolution can be breathtaking.

Today I use various techniques depending upon terrain and quarry. For pronghorn there can be a lot of crawling and belly slithering due to short to nonexistent cover (knee and elbow pads needed...and tweezers for cactus spines). The same may apply to alpine tundra on mountain mule deer or bighorn sheep. I still love a forest still-hunt for whitetails as much as ever, but it also works for elk. Spot and stalk is also a form of still-hunting, and can be used on elk or deer or sheep or goats (or moose if I ever get a tag). Tracking as the Benoits did was also something I started in the Adirondacks when Larry was becoming a living legend. I was never good at guessing the sex of the whitetail tracks (no mentor), but it is easier on elk, and tracking fresh tracks does take you to where the critters are. All forms of still-hunting are rewarding.

When I took it up, it was defined as "hunting by stealth, silently, without the use of hounds", therefore still as in quiet - no hounds baying or chase dogs barking. Old English usage that was vernacular in the Adirondacks and in the writings of the old guys from back in the heyday of the Adirondack hunting camps. It was learn as you go for me.